Pattern Book Large Lot Apartments 03: plans, lot sizes and apartment yield

The development standards, the numeric planning rules for this pattern, set the minimum: a lot at least 67 metres wide and 3,551 square metres, with the width measured at the front of the building line, where the front wall of the building sits. The official key metrics widen that to lots between 67 and 127.5 metres wide and 3,551 and 6,566 square metres.

The seven cards below are the complete set of lot conditions on the official applicable lot sizes sheet. They keep the sheet's own boundary, its width and depth dimensions and its setback figures, the gap the building must keep from each boundary: 3.5 metres to the front and rear streets, 1.5 metres to a tertiary (third) street or boundary, and 9 metres on one side for the through site link, a pedestrian and service path through the site.

The building grows by adding terrace modules on a 5.3 metre grid, so the same pattern serves lots from 67 to 99 metres wide. Past 99 metres the pattern doubles into two buildings with a 12 or 18 metre through site link between them. The units per core grouping noted on each card is a per core figure, not a building total.

Type your address to load your actual block from the NSW cadastre, the State's map of land parcels, including its boundaries, zoning and planning layers. Dudils screens lot size and orientation to identify patterns that could work. It does not complete a planning eligibility assessment: it does not confirm contours, hazards, easements, sewer, waste vehicle access or street frontage requirements. Check a current survey, title information and State and council mapping before committing to the land or the licence.

The mid rise patterns only apply in the areas the NSW Government has opened up for more homes: low and mid rise housing areas under section 163 of the Housing SEPP, the State planning policy for housing, and transport oriented development areas under Chapter 5 of the same policy, where a residential flat building (an apartment building) is permitted with consent in the zone. You can look these areas up on the NSW Planning Portal map, or type your address above and the lot finder checks them for you.

The pattern is designed for mid block, end block, half block and whole block sites, and the siting sheet also shows island, double block, corner and multiblock arrangements. On a mid block site the through site link has to be secured through an approved masterplan so access carries through to the adjoining property.

The pattern's own drawings tie the storey count to the transport oriented development band, showing 6 storeys within 400 metres of a station and 5 storeys from 400 to 800 metres, and one lot condition is marked for 400 to 800 metre sites only. Where the pattern applies, its development standards prevail over inconsistent local controls, so the lot size, height and setback numbers on this page hold even where a council plan says otherwise.

The base pattern is a square doughnut: four single storey corner apartments hold the corners, terrace like rows of one and two storey apartments run between them, and a landscaped courtyard sits in the middle. Four cores serve the building, each reached from a wide access balcony that overlooks the courtyard.

The complete level sequence below runs from the basement to the roof and includes both ground floor options and both fourth floor schemes. The apartment mix sheet counts 18 apartments on the ground floor, 4 on level 1, 20 on level 2, 4 on level 3 and 12 on level 4, which is 58 apartments in the base pattern. The 6 storey scheme replaces the level 4 communal floor with a full residential floor and adds level 5.

The base pattern measures 5,803 m² of gross floor area (the total floor area inside the outer walls), 5,439 m² of net saleable area and 16,362 m² of gross external area, with 977.35 m² of communal open space, 432.25 m² of deep soil and 686.79 m² of tree canopy. Basement geometry and parking capacity remain subject to detailed structural, traffic, services and fire engineering.

These are the internal areas from the official apartment type sheets, with ceilings of at least 2.7 metres in habitable rooms. Every apartment has a balcony, and every apartment has at least two orientations, which is how the pattern reaches 100 per cent cross ventilation.

The mix changes with the parking option. Studios only appear in the on grade parking scheme, where they take the ground floor street frontage that the two bedroom terraces occupy in the basement scheme.

The pattern is a kit with strict rules rather than a single fixed building. What you can change: the lot size across the seven official conditions, the storey count from 4 to 6, the parking option, the character scheme and its colour way, optional solar panels and awnings, and whether the plan is mirrored to suit the slope.

What stays fixed: the central courtyard, the ground floor activation of the primary street, the terrace and corner apartment arrangement, the stacked wet areas and stairs in the compactus, and the 9 metre wide through site link that carries services and waste collection. Every change, flexible ones included, has to be declared in the design verification statement, the document a registered architect completes to confirm the proposal keeps to the pattern, which goes with the development application (DA) lodged with council.

The pattern's own sheets record a maximum 500 millimetre north to south gradient and a maximum 2,000 millimetre east to west gradient, and the selections page describes that as 0.5 metres of upslope and 2 metres of downslope. Dudils screens slope from the national elevation model, which is indicative and not a survey, so measure the fall across your site from a current survey before assuming a fit.

There are two character schemes. Scheme 01 is brickwork with painted fibre cement board. Scheme 02 is rendered masonry, in a textured splatter dash finish, with painted fibre cement board. Each comes in three colour ways: terracotta, sage and neutral.

Both schemes share a common palette of clear glass brick to the fire stair, exposed off form concrete, anodised aluminium panels, aluminium balustrades and a galvanised cyclone wire mesh screen to the entry facade. Stacked wet areas and services are expressed as vertical brick bands on the facades. Retractable fabric awnings are an optional character detail. Any substitution still has to hold the intended colour, profile and finish relationships in the technical package.

Dudils screens lot size and orientation to identify patterns that could work. It does not complete a planning eligibility assessment. Before buying a site, placing an option on it or purchasing the pattern licence, check current State and local council mapping and get professional advice.

Rule out bush fire prone land, including the lowest bushfire attack level (BAL) rating of 12.5, and excluded flood prone land. Heritage items and conservation areas, landslip risk land, registered easements that affect the proposed building area, coastal hazard land, foreshore land and unsewered land also need to be ruled out. Battle axe lots are expressly excluded from the irregular lot adaptations.

Check the survey contours. The pattern allows 0.5 metres of fall in one direction and 2 metres in the other, which is a flat site by most standards, and Dudils screens slope from the national elevation model, which is indicative and not a survey. Check sewer location, easements and other title restrictions against the proposed footprint as well as the mapped planning layers.

The building runs to at least 67 metres of frontage and needs weekly on site waste collection with a heavy rigid vehicle (a large rubbish truck) using the through site link, so vehicle access, turning and the public domain interface matter early. Parking varies from 30 to 120 spaces across the range, and the on grade option needs a wider lot than the basement option for the same building.

Overshadowing is the constraint that most often reduces a scheme. A site north of existing homes can easily overshadow neighbours to the south, and neighbours must keep at least 3 hours of sun to half their private open space between 9am and 3pm on 21 June, evidenced with shadow diagrams. Ask Good Architect to undertake a site feasibility study before buying land, placing an option or purchasing the pattern licence so these constraints and the likely yield can be tested together.

These are the numeric controls specific to this pattern. They sit in Chapter 7 of the Housing SEPP and prevail over inconsistent local controls where the pattern applies.

The design data lists the standard licence as licence from $25,000 per lot. On 8 August 2026 the official shop showed a subsidised price of $2,500 against $25,000, described as subsidised for the first 6 months, with the pattern available to buy. The subsidy has an end date, so check the shop before you plan around either.

The licence package provides the technical drawings in PDF and DWG formats, technical guidance, the editable design verification statement template, the pattern adaptations, the NSW Housing Pattern Book landscape design guide and a unique pattern identification number for your application. Files are delivered electronically within 5 business days.

You then engage a design team to adapt the drawings to your site. The design verification statement must be completed by an architect on the NSW Register of Architects, confirming every fixed and adapted feature is carried into the application.

Reduced assessment removes the slow parts of a normal apartment development application, because the design questions are already answered: no design review panel and no reassessment against the Apartment Design Guide. It does not remove survey, site testing, engineering, traffic, waste, landscape or consultant reports, and every application still has to demonstrate BASIX and NatHERS compliance and meet the ABCB Livable Housing Design Standard.

The pattern drawings are indicative designs for planning approval, not construction drawings. After consent you still need full construction documentation, engineers and practitioners registered under the Design and Building Practitioners Act for this Class 2 (apartment) building. Start with a Good Architect site feasibility study before committing to the land or the licence.